before president obama and house speaker john boehner were working on a much bigger package obviously, not just to avoid the fiscal cliff but to try and tackle the long-term fiscal health of the country, trying to overall it was expected to raise some taxes, try to deal with entitlement reform and tax reform, those other big things like entitlement reform and tax reform get kicked into the new year, dana, so it's the gift that keeps on giving on this cli clifftmas. >> taking this pretty far. one of the key questions is whether or not senate democratic leader harry reid will be able to get enough republicans in the senate to vote on anything that will keep taxes low and maybe cut some spending. is the white house optimistic enough that the president might come back early to -- maybe he thinks he might have something to sign? >> i think it is expected that the president will come back early. probably whether or not he has something to sign because -- because obviously he's going to have to even maybe be twisting arms and lobbying some senators in his own party. the big question right no